Editable web pages are becoming more and more common on the Internet. An editable web page (sometimes called a wiki) is a page of a website that allows visitors of the page to easily add, remove, and otherwise edit and change available content. An editable web page enables users to write documents in a simple markup language using a web browser. Users may add links to other web pages to an editable web page. A defining characteristic of editable web page technology is the ease with which users can create and update web pages. Many edits can be made in real time, and appear almost instantaneously online. Often, there is no review before modifications are accepted. Many editable web pages are open to the public without the need to register any user account. Private editable web page servers require user authentication to edit, and sometimes even to read, editable web pages and provide greater security and authenticity to the content. The overall ease of interaction and operation makes an editable web page an effective tool for mass collaborative authoring and distribution of up-to-date information.
The manner in which users edit content varies among editable websites. Simple editable websites allow only basic text formatting, whereas editable websites that are more complex support tables, images, formulas, or even interactive elements such as polls and games. Many basic editable websites consider HyperText Markup Language (HTML) too difficult for inexperienced users to manipulate directly, and therefore only allow users to contribute plain text content to the website. This method severely limits the types of content that users can add to the website. Other intermediate editable websites have created a special language that users can use to add formatted content. For example, one convention is to treat an asterisk (*) before an item as a user request to add that item to a bulleted list. This method allows users to add more types of content, but requires that the users learn the special language and limits the users to the types of content that the language supports. More advanced editable websites allow users to edit HTML directly. Making typical HTML source code visible makes the actual text content very hard to read and edit for most users. Allowing users to edit HTML source code also allows users to add potentially malicious or inappropriate content. For example, a user can add a link that displays one target but actually navigates to another target when a viewing user selects the link. Allowing users to edit HTML directly also reduces the consistency between editable web pages that are part of the same editable website, because it is difficult to enforce any type of common format on the HTML.
Some recent wiki engines use a different method: they allow “WYSIWYG” (What You See Is What You Get) editing, usually by means of JavaScript or an ActiveX control that translates graphically entered formatting instructions, such as “bold” and “italics,” into the corresponding HTML tags. These implementations generate the markup of a newly edited HTML version of the web page transparently, and shield the user from the technical details. This method provides the most formatting options to the user with the least difficulty. WYSIWYG editors work well with standard Internet content types such as text and images.
Increasingly, many users want to include content provided by other sites on the Internet to their wiki-enabled web pages. This non-editable content is referred to herein as “embedded content.” Embedded content may include embedded videos, audio, polls, chat clients, calendars, slideshows, or any other type of content typically available on the Internet. For example, a user may place a video from YouTube on an editable web page. However, the user cannot actually edit the video within the editable web page. This breaks the WYSIWYG paradigm because a user is not allowed to make changes to the content directly and see a reflection of the changes in the displayed content nearly instantaneously. Embedded content elements are generally embedded via an HTML EMBED tag (e.g., embedded Flash media) or an IFRAME tag (e.g., external pages loaded into an internal frame). Neither of these tags has appropriate editing tools within typical editable browsers. However, these tags are the method by which the browsers display the embedded elements. In effect, users presently only have the option to blindly add tags to their web pages with very little control as to how the tagged content will be displayed.
Some editable websites handle embedded content by displaying a gray box when editing an embedded content element. Others may not display anything at all. When in editing mode, it is difficult for users to identify their content by viewing such a nondescript display. For example, if there are four videos on the editable web page, in editing mode they all look the same when displayed on the web page. In addition, embedded content, although not directly editable, generally has editable attributes that relate to the editable web page in which it is embedded. Editable attributes may include options to manipulate the size, position, and alignment (e.g., centering) of the content. Typical editable websites make it difficult to edit these editable attributes, and some do not allow a user to edit them at all. Such websites do not provide a familiar WYSIWYG editing environment for the user to discover which attributes are editable and to easily manipulate the embedded content.
There is a need for a system that overcomes the above problems, as well as one that provides additional benefits.
The headings provided herein are for convenience only and do not necessarily affect the scope or meaning of the claimed invention.